Who Do You Think You Are Is Not Renewed

I’m really bummed out that Who Do You Think You Are? wasn’t renewed for another season. I guess we were lucky it was on as long as it was. It’s my opinion that even with a good time slot, interesting stars and healthy topics like personal family history, it just wasn’t a quick money maker like some of the other shows on TV now. They cater to some made-up demographic they “say” is more of the 20-30 age range, but I’m sorry, it just doesn’t fly with me.

There seems to be a complete misunderstanding on which age group has the most money to spend (us older folks) and which one does spend. Maybe that’s the problem. The mentality of not renewing good family shows like WDYTYA in favor of some low brow fluff is just another example of national stations making a quick buck any way they can.

Paula Deen’s Family History Surprise

I didn’t expect Paula Deen to be all that knowledgeable about the Civil War in the south, or it’s ramifications. I think her interests have run in the direction of making a living and successful business interests. I don’t fault her for that in the least.

I do think she was genuinely saddened by the war story of her ancestor’s son and his eventual death. I imagine she was imagining her own boys in the same situation. I’ve heard some people griping about her not anticipating that some of her family could have been slave owners and rather than looking at it as a seasoned genealogist, I’ve tried to see it from a ‘newbie’s’ point of view as she did.

We all like to believe that our families didn’t own slaves but that is a exercise in futility. I know mine did and I do think it is horrible, but I can’t change history. Some of my ancestors were indentured servants also, and that is a whole other part of history of a kind of slavery. NBC had/has a chance to educate our younger generations about history and how it affected their ancestors then and now, but right now it’s not to be.

Who Do You Think You Are? may be gone now, but you can still find many genealogy-related programs on TV and in podcasts or webinars. Think about investigating some of these well put together programs too.

I’ve enjoyed the Who Do You Think You Are program from day one, and so admittedly, this is a biased opinion from me. I’ve been trying to determine just what has changed this season, and I think I can say the show seems a bit more streamlined. Not so much of the “how to’s” as other years, but still very interesting to see where each person gets their documentation.

It was interesting to see the parallels between the lives of Sheen’s two multiple grandfathers with both of them fighting for rights and freedoms that they believed in, and the consequences they had to endure.

I found out an previously unknown bit of information on my own Yates family this week. My grandfather Will Yates’ youngest sister Cerilda Eller Yates had a husband who was murdered. One of Cerilda’s descendants shared that information with me.

I was confused about a death record for Cerilda that listed her correct birth date and location, but had her name as Betty Burnley. That first name is about as far away from her actual first name as you can get, and I found out from my cousin that she changed her name so that the people who murdered her husband Earl Deshay wouldn’t be able to find her! I’ll post more about his if I find new information.